Saturday, January 12, 2008

Do it all, Billy Hall

The theory is that Cameron moves to center, Bill Hall returns to the infield and takes over third base and Ryan Braun moves to left field to minimize his impact as a fielder. That's a nice way of telling Braun to go stand out in the outfield and wait for his turn to bat.

The result of all the moves is that Hall is moved back to the infield and is asked to make another move for the Brewers. He's already done this a few times before in the past:

The biggest move of all involves Bill Hall. For a third straight year he will be expected to field a different position. In 2006, Hall played most of the year at shortstop when JJ Hardy was out with an ankle injury. Last season he transitioned to center field in anticipation of Ryan Braun being the everyday third basemen at some point. Hall struggled defensively in center which led to his struggles at the plate. All of his numbers at the plate dropped off significantly from 2006. Home runs dropped from 35 to 14. His batting average fell from .270 to .254. His on-base percentage fell 30 points and his slugging percentage dropped a staggering 128 points.

Hall was a bit of a fantasy let down last year, so this should help with that. There's an interesting point brought up in the comments section, though, regarding what will happen to Braun's numbers by going through the same juggling act.

I guess that's the downside of being a good true athlete like Hall - the team can take it as a blank check to shuffle you around at will. I'll go on record now in saying that the 2008 Brewers are officially starting to scare me.

2 Comments:

Bill Hall was definitely a fantasy letdown last year (I know because I had him), but this move means he's going to eligible for yet another position next year. That means that I will be tempted to take him two rounds too early yet again.